Re:

On Tue, Apr 19, 2005 at 01:27:09PM -0700, Zuoxin.Wang@kp.org wrote:

> test=# select used from patient;
>  used
> ------
>  N
>  N
> (2 rows)

Try

select '{' || used || '}' from patient;

> test=# select  first_name, last_name, used, birthday from patient;
>  first_name | last_name | used |  birthday
> ------------+-----------+------+------------
>    | 1960-02-01DI       | N
>    | 1960-02-01DI       | N
> (2 rows)

Looks like you have some non-printable character in the used column.

--
Alvaro Herrera (<alvherre[@]dcc.uchile.cl>)
"La conclusión que podemos sacar de esos estudios es que
no podemos sacar ninguna conclusión de ellos" (Tanenbaum)